Think of pesto, and it evokes different recipe ideas. You can use this versatile sauce and condiment—a blend of basil,* olive oil, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese—for:

 
So how about pesto and cheese?

Some cheese makers add pesto to their curds to produce beauties such as the bright green Gouda, Basiron Pesto, and Pesto Jack, a yellow cheese with flecks of chopped basil. You can also find fresh goat cheese logs with pesto.

It’s easy to make your own pesto cheese spread.

Pesto mixed with soft goat cheese. Photo courtesy Vermont Creamery.

APPETIZER OR CHEESE COURSE

You can cut slices from a goat cheese log, such as in the photo at left, and turn it into an individual serving. For a cheese course, serve it with a side of crostini or toasted, sliced baguette. For a salad and cheese course, serve it atop a bed of greens.

Instead of the topping of gremolata (choppped parsley andother green herbs, lemon zest and garlic) shown in the photo, pour pesto over the cheese.
Make your own pesto with this easy recipe.

Here’s the history of pesto.

Our favorite pesto sauces.

And since it was a lazy weekend, we baked one. Here’s the recipe, courtesy of chef Duff Goldman and Godiva Chocolatier.
COOKIE DOUGH CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients For Cookie Dough

Cookie dough cake: a splendid idea from Duff Goldman. Photo courtesy Godiva Chocolatier.

Cookie Dough Preparation

1. In a stand mixer on medium high speed, cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

2. On low speed, slowly add the flour and salt to the creamed mixture. Mix until well combined. Scrape bowl with a rubber spatula.

3. Add vanilla extract and chocolate chips on low speed until just incorporated.

4. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Cookie Dough Filling Ingredients

Buttercream. Photo © H.D. Connelly |
Fotolia.

1. Place cookie dough into stand mixer and gradually add tablespoons of milk on medium speed, just until the cookie dough is shiny and spreadable.

2. Assemble cake by spreading a layer of buttercream using an offset spatula followed by another layer of cookie dough filling at your desired thickness onto one cake layer. Place the second cake layer on top of the filling-covered first.

3. Ice the entire assembled cake with buttercream.
 
Cake Ingredients

Cake Preparation

1. Prepare cookie dough recipe at least 1 hour before mixing the cake, as it needs to chill in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat oven to 350°F.

3. Prepare the cake pans with baking spray and line with parchment paper rounds.

4. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.

5. Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer on high until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl using a rubber spatula.

6. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time. Be sure to wait until each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next. Scrape bowl with a rubber spatula.

7. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until smooth. Scrape bowl with a rubber spatula.

8. Pour ¼ of batter into each of the two prepared cake pans with a rubber spatula. Evenly distribute tablespoon portions of cookie dough across the batter surface. Space portions approximately 1″-2″ apart to ensure that each slice of cake is embedded with cookie dough. Pour remaining batter evenly between the two pans, making sure that the cookie dough is evenly covered. Spread batter with an offset spatula so that it is evenly in pan.

9. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cake will slightly shrink away from the sides of the pans.

10. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Run a small offset spatula around the outside of the cake to loosen from the pan, then carefully flip the cake out of the pan onto the wire rack. Place the cake right side up on rack and let it cool completely before icing.

Buttercream Ingredients

Makes roughly 4 pounds (enough to ice a 3-tier cake)

 
Buttercream Preparation

1. Make sure to have a completely clean and dry bowl when you start your process, any fat or liquid at all in the bowl will stunt the protein development of the albumen (egg white protein) and you will not have a proper meringue at the end.

2. Start whipping egg whites on medium low speed in the mixer by themselves (no sugar or butter yet) until the whites are foamy and opaque. It should look like the head of beer.

3. Increase to medium speed and slowly start adding the sugar until all the sugar is incorporated.

4. Once all the sugar is in, increase the speed of the mixer to high and whip until the mixture is shiny and stiff. You now have a meringue. You know when your meringue is done when you pull out the whip, hold it horizontal, and if you have what looks a “sparrow’s beak” on the end of the whip.

5. Replace the whip, turn the mixer on medium and start adding the butter a bit at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated, turn the mixer on medium speed and let it whip until the butter has completely emulsified into the meringue. When you first add the butter, your meringue will break down and look like cottage cheese, but will continue to emulsify into a smooth buttercream. Depending on the weather, the buttercream could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to form. When the buttercream is ready, the mixture will be homogeneous and smooth.

6. Remove the buttercream from the bowl and place in an airtight container. Buttercream can be kept at room temperature for a few days or in the fridge for a week or two, but always use soft buttercream when icing a cake. To warm up the buttercream, put it back in the mixer using a rubber spatula. Begin remixing the buttercream using the whip attachment on high speed while applying direct heat to the outside of the bowl with a propane torch that can be found at any hardware store.

Note: Don’t worry about using raw egg whites in your buttercream. The sugar cooks the egg whites and makes them perfectly safe to eat. But if you are still uneasy about this, use pasteurized egg whites.
  

If there’s one thing that will never make our “meh” list, it’s chocolate truffles, especially the ones so lovingly crafted at Godiva. Now, their renowned truffle-making artistry has leapt to new, irresistible heights.

At Godiva, “How can we make truffles even better?” is a mantra. How indeed?

Start with Ace of Cakes pastry czar, Duff Goldman and Godiva Executive Chef and chocolatier, Thierry Muret in the kitchen, whisk their ideas together until rich and creamy. Out comes Godiva’s first-ever special confection, The Cake Truffle Collection.

These inventions are pure genius: cake truffles without a trace of cake. That’s right. No cake.

The Ace of Cakes, Duff Goldman, culled his ultimate cake recipes and teamed them up with Godiva’s old-world chocolate-making techniques to create four specific cake “favorites,” using subtly flavored mousse, ganache, cream cheese and a variety of chocolates to reproduce the cake flavors.

The four cake truffles include:

 
The truffle treats are sold either individually or in collections of eight or twenty four pieces that include a vibrant, colorful keepsake box. The collection makes an ideal hostess gift or unexpected birthday surprise, wedding remembrance or anniversary delight. For more information about the Cake Truffle Collection and other Godiva products, visit Godiva.com.

The collection is certified kosher (dairy) by OU.

—Rowannn Gilman
 

Find more of our favorite chocolates.

Look closely: sugar is added to plain salsa in
Whole Foods’ store brand. Photo by Elvira
Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Sometimes, though, you skip the reading of panel. A jar of olives, a can of water chestnuts, a container of salsa—you know what’s in the container, right?

Not right!

This week we got taken in by a container of plain salsa from Whole Foods’ new private label line, which beckoned us from a standalone case, along with the company’s private label hummus line.

We rely on salsa as a tangy, low calorie, good-for-you snack and condiment. So we picked up a container, brought it home, popped the top and eagerly inserted a spoon….

What did we get? A mouthful of sugar!

In fruit salsa, one expects some added sugar to enhance the mango, peach or pineapple. But adding sugar to plain salsa not only tastes bizarre—like adding sugar to the olives or the water chestnuts—it is unneeded and unwanted. It’s just wrong.

Salsa didn’t become America’s number condiment, beating out sugar and HFCS†-laden ketchup, by being sweet.

Now, we’re back to reading labels—even on bottled water (we previously purchased what we thought was a bottle of lime-flavored water, to find it was loaded with an unwelcome noncaloric sweetener). With the processed food industry in need of sugaring up every product they sell, we can’t be too safe.

The good news: Whole Foods isn’t adding sugar in their private label hummus (yet). And the hummus flavors, from Greek hummus with the spice blend za’atar* to lemon hummus to tabbouleh hummus and the gamut of established flavors (jalapeño, olive, red pepper, etc.)—are great. The low price ($1.99 per eight-ounce container) is a bonus.

MORE ABOUT SALSA

 
*Curiouser and curiouser: za’atar is a Middle Eastern herb blend but is not particularly associated with Greek cuisine. It’s a blend of oregano), calamint, thyme and satureja, which can be mixed with sesame seeds, dried sumac and salt. Popular Greek herbs and spices include basil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory tarragon and thyme. So, Whole Foods folks, why is this flavor with za’atar called Greek hummus?

†High fructose corn syrup.

What’s “adult Halloween?”

It’s a gathering of friends to enjoy candy-inspired cocktails. Here’s the first of our Halloween cocktails, courtesy of Hornitos Tequila.

To evoke candy corn, this cocktail has been layered with ingredients of different densities that rest atop each other, like oil and vinegar (more about layered cocktails).

With a hint of mint, this cocktail doesn’t taste like candy corn. But you can serve some on the side!

CANDY CORN COCKTAIL RECIPE

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. Chill ingredients, if desired.

2. Layer ingredients in a tall glass.

3. Drink from the bottom, through a straw.

Serve it with a side of candy corn. Photo courtesy Hornitos Tequila.